Melanoma tumors are a growing health concern to millions of people worldwide. Because the growth of tumors is influenced by many factors, including the activation of multiple oncogenes, such as proto-oncogenes, it has been difficult to ascertain the cellular mechanisms underlying cancer cell biology. Consequently, available therapies are limited in their ability to arrest tumor growth from human melanoma cancer cells.
In the case of melanoma, the c-myc proto-oncogene is expressed in human melanoma cancer cells growing as tumors. The contribution of this proto-oncogene to the development of melanoma in humans has remained unelucidated until the present invention. For instance, it has been not understood, until the present invention, whether c-myc expression is necessary for melanoma cancer cell proliferation, whether c-myc expression plays a minor role in melanoma cancer cell proliferation or whether c-myc expression is a result of melanoma cancer cell proliferation rather than the cause the of melanoma cell proliferation. The role of c-myc expression in melanoma metastasis and apoptosis has been also not understood. Nor has the role of c-myc expression been established for the chemoresistance of melanoma to cisplatin.
Consequently, it would be desirable to provide therapeutic compositions and methods to thwart the progression of melanoma cancer in humans, which is the result of multiple cellular processes in human melanoma cancer cells.